What are the foundations and principles of the UBO register?
The law of September 18th 2017 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing and limitations to the use of cash (called thereafter “the Law”) introduces in Belgium the establishment of a register of beneficial owners (the English acronym “UBO” stands for “Ultimate Beneficial Owner”) (called thereafter “The UBO register”).
This law transposes the Directive (EU) 2015/849 of 20 May 2015, on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, (“AML Directive”), which requires the Member States to take legal and regulatory measures in order that:
The companies and other entities incorporated within their territory are required to obtain and hold adequate, accurate and current information on their beneficial owners;
The centralised register storing information on the beneficial owners of these entities is established in order to facilitate access to this information.
The law thus provides for the obligation for companies, (international) non-profit associations, foundations, trusts and similar legal structures to collect and store adequate, accurate and current information on their beneficial owners and to transmit this information to the UBO register within one month of their creation.
You will find 
here (XLSX, 109.15 KB) the list of UBO registers in other EU Member States.
